Saturday, October 11, 2008

palin: obama not terrorist but may be a baby killer

From the NY Times:Despite an enthusiastic reception on Saturday in this small Pennsylvania town, Gov. Sarah Palin dialed back the attacks on Senator Barack Obama that have typified her public appearances of late, a day after her running mate described Mr. Obama as “a decent man.”

The name of William Ayers, the 1960s radical that the McCain campaign has tried to tie to its opponent, was not spoken once by the Alaska governor, a stark contrast to a series of increasingly vituperative attacks related to Mr. Ayers that she delivered at private fund-raisers and large-scale rallies in the past week.

Ms. Palin was by no means light on the Democratic candidate, but she shifted the focus of her attacks to Mr. Obama’s voting record on abortion, saying that he “hopes you won’t notice how radical his ideas are on this until it’s too late.”

“Let there be no misunderstanding about the stakes,” she said to a cheering crowd. “A vote for Barack Obama is a vote for activist courts that will continue to smother the open and democratic debate that we deserve and need on this issue of life.”

It was a shift for the governor, who, in three fund-raisers on Friday, tried to raise questions about Mr. Obama’s personality and patriotism, charging that he had chosen “ambition over country” and “started his political career in the living room of an unrepentant terrorist.” That language was gone from Saturday’s speech.

In fact, the only mention of Mr. Ayers came from a lone agitator in the otherwise temperate crowd, who shouted, “What about Ayers?” during a pause in the governor’s remarks. Ms. Palin did not acknowledge him...